I understand that the NNG formula relates $Q$, $I_3$, and $Y$ and can be derived in QCD; does this unambiguously predict the electric charge ratios without making assumptions about the definitions of isospin and hypercharge?

If so, this is unintuitive to me! Why does a particle carrying $SU(3)$ color charge care what charge it has under the totally separate electroweak
$U(1)\times SU(2)~$ symmetries?

If not, is there a name for the "problem" of explaining the charge ratios?

1 Answer
1

There is a nontrivial relation between the electric charge and the strong business, namely that there are instantons which will cause proton decay. So it is not completely true that there are no relations--- the requirement of anomaly cancellation requires that the proton decay process conserve charge, and so relates the total charge on the proton to the total charge on the electron.

This gives the 1,2,3,6 ratios of the hypercharge assignments in nature, and completely explains the crazy quark charges. It is also an automatic way of ensuring anomaly cancellation. This, and approximate coupling constant unification, are the two strongest bits of evidence for a GUT at a scale of $10^16$ GeV or thereabouts.

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